Aerial view of Avenue 9 de Julio during the mobilization called by social organizations and left-wing parties for Labor Day in Buenos Aires, May 1, 2023.
Social organizations and left-wing parties in Argentina commemorated Labor Day on Monday with actions and people’s pots against the terms of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and called for measures to mitigate the consequences of inflation.
The government “prioritised the agreement with the Monetary Fund over the suffering of the immense majorities of the people, which today we are rallying to denounce this situation in which our families are living,” warned José ‘Pepe’ Gazpio of the Popular Movement for Dignity.
“But we also want to say that all is not lost and that we need politics to listen more to the sectors that are filling the streets and squares today,” said Gazpio, a member of this social organization based on the central 9th Avenue mobilized. told AFP in July, where around 4,000 people gathered under the slogan “No to the IMF”.
Amid red and black flags, militants cooked stews in huge pots to distribute to protesters in one of the many rallies held to commemorate Labor Day, a public holiday in Argentina.
Although the official unemployment rate closed last year at 6.3%, its lowest level in several decades, inflation, which has piled up to 102% in 12 months, is eroding incomes, and even with jobs, poverty lies in a country of 46 million inhabitants at almost 40%.
Amid a currency run in recent days that is exacerbating price increases, Argentina’s government is attempting to renegotiate the agreement with the International Monetary Fund to refinance a $44,000 million debt incurred in 2018, which includes a strong program of fiscal discipline.
The May Day files also served to express opposition to labor reforms that several right-wing opposition presidential candidates had promised to promote.
“We are against any kind of labor flexibility, we are against any kind of concentration on the part of the price-setting companies that, in the Argentine Republic, are holding every one of our families’ tables hostage. We know who is causing this inflation and it is these companies,” said Marina Joski, a member of the Union of National Economy Workers (UTEP).
“Workers in Argentina are part of the solution, not the problem,” added Rafael Klejzer of the La Dignidad movement.
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